News of the Week for Jan. 20th, 2013

Gun Rights

Sen. Joe Manchin on New Gun Control Laws, Bans: ‘Everything is On the Table’
On The Andrea Tantaros Show with Jason Mattera, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) tangled with host Andrea Tantaros on the subject of new laws that Congress may consider in the wake of the Newtown, CT mass killing. Manchin, who describes himself as a lifelong gun owner and member of the National Rifle Association, said that while he believes strongly in the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, “everything is on the table.” He refused to answer whether he would vote for or against any proposed new gun laws or bans. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to recommend new gun measures tomorrow.

NY Has Tentative Deal on Gun Control
The tentative agreement would further restrict New York’s ban on assault weapons and limit the size of magazines to seven bullets, rather than the current 10. Other elements, pushed by Republicans, would refine a mental health law to make it easier to confine people determined to be a threat to themselves or others.

The Race For Gun Control In America
Just last Thursday, the Vice President of the United States met with a delegation from the NRA, other gun organizations, and large retailers of guns in America. The meeting was billed as a conversation to enact meaningful ways to curb gun violence in America. Apparently, this “conversation” was completely one-sided.

New York Senate passes tough gun law
New York came one step closer to enacting tougher gun laws on Monday, with the state Senate approving a set of broad changes in a late-night Monday vote and the Assembly expected to act early Tuesday.

Cuomo Signs Sweeping Gun Control Law
Panic legislating is what ought to be banned. Then again, it’s only some in the media and among the public who are truly panicked. The politicians moved with such speed on these measures that it’s obviously been part of a plan, just waiting for the proper crisis

Overheard at the gun show…
Today I shopped the RK Gun Show along with about half of Kansas City. A record turnout. No parking for blocks. There’s definitely a sense of urgency among gun buyers as reflected by the depleted inventories and prices.

White House eying 19 executive actions on guns
The White House has identified 19 executive actions for President Barack Obama to move unilaterally on gun control, Vice President Joe Biden told a group of House Democrats on Monday, the administration’s first definitive statements about its response to last month’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Southwestern Pa. hospital to stop baby deliveries
A southwestern Pennsylvania hospital will stop delivering babies after March 31 because its obstetricians are either leaving or refocusing their practices, and because hospital officials believe they can’t afford it based on projected reimbursements under looming federal health care reforms.

NRA event for Nevada lawmakers draws criticism
With the Legislature set to begin in a little more than two weeks, and with debate raging nationally about gun control, an invitation-only event for Nevada lawmakers hosted by the National Rifle Association at a Las Vegas shooting range drew criticism Friday from a liberal advocacy group.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

Oil/gas search: Fracking comes to Nevada
The Silver State is about to get fracked.
Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. is pursuing plans to drill for oil and natural gas across a 40,000-acre swath of public and private land near the city of Wells, about 400 miles north of Las Vegas.

Government in Healthcare

Obama using gun issue to advance health law
President Obama is using the national debate over gun violence to push for further action on his health care law, including insisting on the kind of mental health coverage states must provide under their Medicaid programs.

Algeria: 32 militants killed, with 23 hostages
In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.

Everyone’s Moving Away
Ace pilot Chuck Yeager used to say, “Never wait for trouble.”. Barry Ritholz tweeted this early this AM and I thought it was pretty meaningful in a macro sense. Check out which states are seeing increases in childbirth, and which aren’t.

NJ town proposes flag ban
The Hudson County town of West New York is considering a widespread sign regulation that could include banning American flags from being flown.

Federal court of appeals upholds Walker’s Act 10 union law
A federal court of appeals on Friday upheld Wisconsin’s law repealing most collective bargaining for most public employees, handing a victory to Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans who put the law in place amid tumult two years ago.

Obama’s OFA Drops the ‘America’
The “A” in President Obama’s Organizing for America project is getting a little less all-American.
“The next chapter in our movement for change,” Obama told supporters in an email today, will be morphing the DNC-led grassroots effort in Organizing for Action.

Michigan Supreme Court justice charged with fraud
Federal prosecutors have filed a fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway, just a few days before she leaves the state’s highest court in a scandal involving the sale of a Detroit-area home and suspicious steps taken to conceal property in Florida.

Economy
& Taxes

Why the public trough is so deep
If you wonder why the average firefighter in Oceanside makes more than the average foot doctor in California, or why the health care of wealthy seniors is funded partly from the wages of broke college students delivering pizzas, we suggest curling up with the 50-year-old writings of James M. Buchanan, the Nobel-winning economist who died Wednesday at the age of 93.

Is Paul Getting an Early Start on 2016 White House Race?
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is taking a pass on next week’s crowded inaugural festivities in order to attend a much more intimate gathering: The Monday Meeting, a closed-door, off-the-record gathering of top conservatives in South Carolina.

German Economy Slows Sharply as Crisis Hits Home
German gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk sharply in the last quarter of 2012, according to first estimates by the country’s Federal Statistics Office. The government forecast fourth quarter GDP fell by 0.5 percent, marking a weaker close to 2012 than previously thought.

US Mint Out Of Silver Coins – Suspends Sales
As we noted earlier this month, the demand for both gold and silver ‘physical’ coins has been record-breaking as 2013 began. So much so, that now after selling over 6 million silver coins in 2013 so far, the US Mint has run out of silver eagles and has suspended sales.

School Buses Bankrupting NYC
New York City is spending a fortune on school buses. The New York Times reports that the city spends an astonishing $7,000 per student each year to bus children to school, nearly twice as much as other large cities.

International

Greeks ravage forests to heat homes
Greek authorities said Tuesday they seized 13,000 tonnes of illegally cut wood last year as Greeks increasingly ravage forests to heat their homes amid a rise in taxes on fuel oil in their debt-strapped country.

The Game of Thrones in North Africa
It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago.

Prime Minister’s Arrest Ordered amid ‘Revolution’
Pakistan has plunged into a leadership crisis. As hundreds of thousands demonstrate against corruption, the country’s high court has ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Ashraf. Populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri has declared a “revolution.”

Pakistan Supreme Court Orders Arrest of Prime Minister
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in a corruption case on Tuesday afternoon, in a drastic intensification of hostilities between the country’s embattled government and its opponents.

Brazil wants Venezuela election if Chavez dies – sources
Brazil is urging Venezuela’s government to hold elections as quickly as possible if President Hugo Chavez dies, senior officials told Reuters on Monday, a major intervention by Latin America’s regional powerhouse that could help ensure a smoother leadership transition in Caracas.

Media deal may cost Taiwan a free press
As a nation that values freedom of speech and a free press above all else, Americans everywhere should at least be aware of the disaster that’s about to happen to democratic Taiwan’s media market.

The Youth Vote: Making the GOP Cool Again
Just because young voters historically do not show up to the polls in large numbers does not mean they should be overlooked. They may later work in education, the media, or Hollywood – three major institutions that play a pivotal role in shaping political opinions and, quite frankly, are dominated by the Left. If the GOP ever hopes of winning the youth vote, culture cannot be ignored.

Guns, Gays, and Eighteenth-Century Rights
As of January 13, 2013, when a million French citizens stormed Paris to stop a bill extending marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples, it became clear that the world is witnessing a compressed, high-speed reprise of the late eighteenth century.